Hi mark,
It was true,he was a diver by trade, he went back to it when he “left” . Only see him once after that, he had just come back from a diving job and was doing well. As for the Trevor stories they are endless, another day, along with the rest I can recall about it …
Hi Tone,great to have you onboard,you ol,tart!!Thanks for recalling the names that i,d forgotten.The thing i remember most about Mick Weldon was that Rover car he had,you recall the one?the dashboard used to slide about at every turn and bits used to fall of all over the place.His driving was a bit crude to say the least,he was always cutting up poeple ect,and he was only a little bloke and would argue with the biggest of blokes.
He was a great character all the same.
I think i did run across Bill Kennedy once after leaving,in some RDC,somewhere,cannot recall but he was with Hayters at the time.
And Bill the night trunker,had some laughs with him
Chris Delany,great bloke to,had a few beers with him.
Lots more memories to come.
Many thanks to bubbleman for the pics,I asked him if he had any pics of Dodds motors,and he said he had some but not sure where.So thanks again for taking the time to share some of his pics with us.
Tony I am sending you a PM.
Stay Lucky Mick.
Hi Tony & Mick,
What was the name of that (Foreign?) (Maltese?) bloke who thought he knew it all? Think his brother was on with him for a while. We F d him up at a trade show at a London hotel by leaving him on the lorry. The rest of us were barrowing the stuff to the lifts, down in the lift and into the display room. We got freebie food and drink as and when, he got nothing stuck up in the street.
The name Tony Etherington comes to mind.
Cliff
I remember that new car/holiday/leaving bit now Tony. Totally forgotten that!! Strange Eh??
As for me not pulling the drag, I took it to Halifax once. Yeah! Just once! That was enough, thank-you. Never wanted to be a big wheeler. I got D817 from ■■■■. I’d left, he took over the West-Country, then Mark told me he was leaving. I rung Jim Dodd and got my job back, but not D820. Bit of a blow, but what the hell.
tonyclark:
Hi pcb,yes he did get hijacked. Strange thing was not long after he brought a new car, and had a 3 week holiday abroad, then left… You decide.
In one of your posts you say the odd lorry on the Hayes fleet without the “fancy spliter gearbox” was C666, I’m sure it was D817 PVX, if I remember right. Cliff had it for a while. They gave D820 to Chris Smith cos he would pull the drag, Cliff wouldn’t.
Hi Cliff,
right bear with me, cos I may be wrong!! I’m sure when I started ■■■■ was doing the Bristol bit of your run in D819 , and you were doing the Cornwall bit in D820, ( I remember getting the train from Exeter ). Then for some reason you got D817, and Chris got D820. Then you left to do something else and they put both runs together and ■■■■ became out based. Then when Dodds decided to pay the London drivers £10 a week more than the rest, ■■■■ got the hump and left. I reckon thats when you came back and took the run back over with D819.
Like I said I may be wrong, but I’m sure thats what happened,
Tony
Hi All,had a great chat to Tony,last night.He has great recall.Reminded me of so much stuff,like the crane that went through the side of DB103…then there was the flying 3pc suite on the M11.I,ll relate these tales later bit busy at mo.
i remember the foreign guy we had and the hotel exhibitions.
Hey,Tony do you remember the time i left the trailer and box in Gt Yarmouth…I had been delivering with just the truck for a few weeks as there was not a great deal of product going out at the time,Anyway this particular week i had a bulk load for Currys in Thetford,which was loaded on the trailer.I dropped the load off on the friday on the way up to Gt Yarmouth,were i parked the lorry up.There yard was a bit cramped that week.so as the trailer was empty i left in on the Quayside,but parked the truck in the secure parking…Mon/Tues completed the delivery round.Early Wed returned to Hayes,parked up in yard,went and saw Tony.He said to me where have you dropped your empty boxes!!!says I its still on the motor…Then it hit me,I,d completely forgotten the drag…Tony was not best pleased cos he had no MT,s left…I was not exactly the flavour of the month at Dodds either…Had to do a bit of rerouting so i could get back East and get the trailer…Never done that before or since either…
Stay lucky Mick
Hi Tony, Mick etc. This has turned into an Hitachi thread at the moment, but here’s another quick tale from when I was out-based in Plymouth.
I left Hayes on Weds for Bristol when they had nobody to bring the change-over down to me. Got to the first drop and found I’d got the right DB key, but the wrong Box on. Security got an ear bending as well as me for not checking. Mark Taylor and me did a change-over somewhere near Chippenham.
The very next trip, I got to Honiton in Devon, late on a Friday morning due to the weds ■■■■ up, and found I had…NO DB Key. Bill West was great with that one. He got me to have an unpaid night out there, then couriered the key down to me and said “Do a few on Saturday if you can, mate”. I did that, caught up the backlog, and heard no more about it. Thanks Bill !!
I think YOU’VE got my history right Tony. I’m sure I remember dropping you off at Exeter, but my memory is not too clever I’m afraid. Why were you down there?
Take care All, Cliff
P.S. I can’t seem to add pix. I click on “Img” and it just puts “things” like </> in the text. What should I do?
Mick, Did we last meet some years ago in Red Lodge when you were on Anglian Windows and I was on Lenham, or maybe you were on an agency? Cliff
Hi Cliffy,yes we did meet up in the Red Lodge and I was on Anglian at the time.
However the last time we met was at Lenham.I had bought from Spain,16 pallets of milk product.At the time i had the DAF roadtrain,a photo of which i posted earlier on this thread.I had been all day waiting to tip in Lenham,as nobody seemed to know anything about the load.I was at the drivers hatch when you came in and saw me,you had just returned to the yard after completeing your deliveries.I believe you had a merc rigid,colour blue…When i eventually tipped,i stayed the night in Lenham village,parked up in some layby…I was well out of hours before i left France…
Stay Lucky Mick
P.S.re pics…when you click on the reply to a post,scroll to the bottom,under where it says save,preview,submit.There are 2 boxes,one says options nd the upload attachement.CLICK UPLOAD ATTACHMENT…this opens up your browser for pics ect…hope this helps
Cliff Boulton:
P.S. I can’t seem to add pix. I click on “Img” and it just puts “things” like </> in the text. What should I do?
I’ll send you a PM Pop and explain it to you.
Let’s see if I’ve added a pic. If I have, it’s CHM 56H. I had CLD 932H and that was plain Blue with “skirts” on the sides and a Bloody Heavy old fashioned tail-board with chains to level it out.
If I haven’t added a pic, this is blank, I expect. Cliff
Hip Hip HOORAY!!! I did it!!
(Thanks to the bloke who has posted this pic elsewhere on Trucknet. I copied into my pictures)
Hi Cliff,
the reason I was with you that Friday is my fault. Trevor said they needed someone to go with you as a mate for the day, as you had hurt your arm or back ( can’t remember now ) It was when we had 4 of us loading. I thought it was a goodway of getting out of loading all day, and only found out about the train after we left!!! You were a good man tho!! At least you didn’t take me all the way to Plymouth.
Hi gents (again)
To get off the Hitachi bit, who was the really laid back Dodds bloke? Dave marchment?? nothing seemed to faze him. I think he was related to Jim somehow. A nice bloke. And I sort of remember someone called Alan ■■ worked in the office at the Arches, bit of a t**t.
Hi Tony, Right on both counts there mate.
Dave Marchment, (Pockets I believe he was also known as) was Jimmy’s Brother in Law, married to Jim’s sister. He seemed to let Dodds carry on around him, not TOO keen on doing a lot, and as long as he got a living, he was happy. A Jack of All Trades really, he lived next door to Roy in Long Lane, nearly opposite the library.
Alan ■■? definitely WAS a bit of a T**t. Neither me nor Mark can remember anything about him except he used to TRY to be in charge, but it didn’t work like that. That’s how interesting he was.
Quick tale about Roy. I was on a Night Out in the Bush and was asked to take one of the Peugeor Cars to pick Roy & Lil, his wife, up to take them to a Dinner somewhere. (This happened a few times) I went in the house to wait while they finished getting ready, and Roy came in the kitchen, posh suit, white shirt, bow tie, the lot and put his shoes up on the worktop to clean them up. Lil came down stairs and went mad at him. He turned to me, divorced by now, and said “You got rid of yours didn’t you Mate? How did you do it?” What a great couple they were, and there was always a cup of tea if you went to the house.
Gonna TRY to put 2 pix of D820 PVX with the drag on. They were taken by Mark when he came down to Somerset with Argos, Bridgewater on one box, and change-over with me with the other. One pic was taken in a Lay-By near Argos, the other in Langdons Truck Stop at Taunton, now sadly gone. Hope they come out.
That’s it for now, Cliff
They looked good didn’t they? 
I’ve seen that bottom photo before I don’t remember seeing the top one.
Why did the trailers run higher than the box on front?
Hi Guys,fantastic pics,and yes they do look good…as Johnny Cash said,I ALWAYS WANTED ONE,LONG AND BLACK!!!
Stay lucky Mick
Hi Guys,Yep remember Dave Marchment.He took me for my test drive,when i went for my job interview.Must have done OK cos i got the job!!
Hi Guys,Off thread,I know but heres a pic of my Anglian Windows motor/drag/demounts.She was about 6 months old when i got her,had her for 6 years.Did about 800,000 kilometers in that wendy house Volvo FL10
Stay lucky Mick
Hi gents,
As both Mick & Mark mentioned my love of a beer or two, It got me thinking! Who was the bloke on Dodds that liked a beer more than me? I don’t know why but the name “Spud” springs to mind. Everytime I ever met him he had the shakes, seem to think he lived out Luton way. Great bloke tho.
Mick i’m a bit suprised you aint mentioned your old buddy George Cambell from Hayes, the man that introduced Curries Europian to the job. You always got on so well !!!
Right on both counts there Tony. It was Spud who liked a pint or 8, and he did live at Luton. He was already working there when I first started on Dodds in 1970, and obviously there were no mobile phones then. If they wanted Spud, they had the phone number of the pub behind his home, and he would tell the landlord if he wanted Dodds to know if he was there or not. He parked his lorry on the car park, and had, basically, a hole in the hedge through to his garden. He used to swap from one pub to another if it was a penny cheaper when he was at The Bush for a night out, and never came to the cafe for any grub. Maybe had a kebab at closing time. I remember one night down there when he had some washers that came from Vauxhalls at Luton and they worked a particular pubs ■■■ machine. We had to get out rather quickly that night. I’ve was told by Jeff May and Ian King that Spud died some time ago.
Funny thing is, I don’t think I ever knew Spud’s proper name.
Cliff
